Al Franken last night, at the Paramount Theater in Seattle… Not only heartening to hear a political speaker making sense, but to see the enthusiasm for him and the size of his audience was also very encouraging. I particularly like his suggestion that they should give Trump the nuclear codes–but change them, first. Then after …
Author Archives: Ciel
JOURNAL: 4th of July 2019
This was what I wrote this past July 4th, usually a day of proud celebrations and a night of brilliant fireworks commemorating the birth of the United States of America in 1776. It bears repeating now, three months later, as tides are turning… I have mixed feelings this Fourth. You who read me here, you …
Violetta 15 Years My Friend
It is not you my sweet friendI lay to rest upon a bed of flowers,cover over with petals of pink and yellow and whiteand all the gentle colors of the rose…because I could not simply consignyour empty body to the earth, lying on, surrounded by unlovely dirt. It is not you there in the gardenunder the cairn …
Tolkien Tribute: Erebor
Born of fire, the Mountain rose, alone amid the plain,and stood there steaming for an age, cooling in the rainthat fell and gathered in stream and pool and marshes, fen and pond until a lake lay at its feet, and stretched over the lands beyond. Came a hearty race of wandering folk that sheltered there …
Tolkien Tribute: Speak, Friend, and Enter
Some years ago I was active on a Tolkien-based site that featured writing and poetry contests. This was a dialogue-writing competition with set parameters: Characters: an elf and a dwarfSetting: outside Doors of MoriaTheme: Speak, Friend, and EnterI gave myself the added challenge of using the dialogue alone to show the scene and the action. …
Continue reading “Tolkien Tribute: Speak, Friend, and Enter”
Tolkien Tribute again: The Duel
Two persons met on a narrow trail, one short, one tall, and neither frail.The wizard flourished his magic staff–“Now, let me by and don’t be daft!”The hobbit stood firm, he was no fool–and that was the start of their magic duel. I bend my back to look up at you, in your great tall hat …
Tolkien Tribute: Beren and Luthien
Beren and Luthien were a mortal Man and the daughter of an undying Elf and a Maia. They were bound together by love, and together, they fought the great Evil of Middle-earth, and won, though at great cost. Finally, Luthien, also called by Beren, Tinuviel–the Nightingale–chose to remain with him and live a mortal life. …
Yay for Money!
Money is a battery for storing the energies produced by human work. It’s a transformer, too, changing human work into stuff. When the potter trades pottery for the farmer’s grain, it is a device for equalizing any difference in the relative values for the goods generated by the work. In itself, it has no value, …
Tolkien Tribute in honor of Frodo’s & Bilbo’s Birthday!
These next two poems are pantoums, a minstrel’s form, intended to be sung and designed to be remembered. It is a form most suited to Hobbits, who, according to Tolkien, enjoy playing with words and forms in their poetry. THE GUEST OF HONOR Old Bilbo Baggins is eleventy-one!For a hobbit, indeed a respectible age.Though he loves …
Continue reading “Tolkien Tribute in honor of Frodo’s & Bilbo’s Birthday!”
Journal: Dreaming Wonders
I dreamed the most marvelous thing! An oak cabinet, about the size of a dining room credenza, opening up wide to a scene of such perfect and intricate detail, like the very finest miniature house, but with mechanical and electrical devices that worked, and the perfectly sculpted tiny people in it. Each cabinet was built …
LOOSELY SPEAKING... 